Days of Change

by Chuah Guat Eng

Days of Change is a sequel to Echoes of Silence. The narrator is 55-year old Hafiz, whose name means 'the preserver' and 'the memorizer'. When his story begins, Hafiz is suffering from memory loss following a fall down a ravine in Ulu Banir. Unable to talk to a psychiatrist, he uses the I Ching, the Chinese 'book of changes' to trigger his memory. His objectives: to remember the circumstances of his fall, and why he now feels repulsed by his beautiful young wife. His experiment results in 8 notebooks, in which he records his memories of his childhood, the women in his life, his battle against a major corporation bent on appropriating his land and flooding the Banir valley for a Disneyland-type theme park, and his efforts to contribute to Malaysia's progress and development while preserving local traditional knowledge and his own moral integrity. Through Hafiz's memories, thoughts, and dreams, Days of Change provides glimpses of the socio-political changes and ethical challenges Malaysians have had to cope with since Independence.

(From Publisher).

Chuah Guat Eng is a Malaysian writer born December 1, 1943 in Rembau, Negeri Sembilan. She was Malaysia's first English-language woman novelist. She received her early education at the Methodist Girls' School, Klang and Victoria Institution, Kuala Lumpur. She read English Literature at University of Malaya Kuala Lumpur, and German Literature at Ludwig-Maximilian University, Munich. She received a PhD from National University of Malaysia in 2008 for her thesis "From Conflict to Insight: A Zen-based Reading Procedure for the Analysis of Fiction".

Days of Change provides glimpses of the socio-politicall changes and ethical challenges Malaysians have had to cope with since Independence.Days of Changeis a sequel toEchoes of Silence.